Refugees from the Righteous Horde (Toxic World Book 2) (29 page)

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

Jeb lined up his body and threw a lowball to Pablo. The boy swung the bat and connected with a crack. The ball flew right for Jeb. He pretended to fumble it and went running after it as it rolled away.

“Yay! Another home run!”

“You’re a good batter, kid,” Jeb said as he caught up to the ball and picked it up. He tossed it up and caught it. It was well preserved. In fact it was almost perfect. He hadn’t seen a ball in this good condition since he’d been Pablo’s age.

“I’m the best batter in the Burbs,” Pablo said with obvious pride.

“You guys should start a Little League.”

“A what?”

“A bunch of kids teams. None of the adults ever started one for you guys?”

“Adults are always busy.”

“What about your mom’s boyfriend?”

Pablo giggled. “Mom doesn’t have a boyfriend.”

Bingo.

“Get ready, here it comes,” Jeb wound up and threw the ball again. Pablo cracked it again and Jeb missed it for real this time. He ran after it, grinned at the guard who sat watching a little ways off, and scooped it up.

He stopped and looked around. Yeah, this was a hell of a place. And now The Doctor said he could stay. A roof over his head, three meals a day, a job. He’d have a real life again.

And there’d be plenty of time for baseball. He started walking back to Pablo, who ran up to meet him.

You’re going to live to be a hundred, buddy, and now it’s actually worth it.

He stopped in his tracks. A small crowd approached. Clyde and Annette strode in front. Tears wet Annette’s cheeks. Beside them walked a short, ugly woman who looked familiar. Pablo was tugging at his hand trying to get his attention.

Jeb’s heart went cold.

That porter chick, Donna’s friend. What was her name?

She’s told them who I am.

Option 1: Fight. Grab the guard’s gun while he still didn’t know what was going on. No. He couldn’t shoot these people, and he’d never make it out anyway.

Option 2: Run. They’d only shoot him in the back.

Option 3. . .

He looked down at Pablo. The boy looked up at him, curious.

Option 3. . .

Jeb reached into his back pocket and pulled out Leonard’s clasp knife. In his peripheral vision he saw the crowd stop.

Option 3. . .

He handed the knife to Pablo.

“Here. You can work on that bat with Kevin and Rachel.”

Pablo broke into a grin and turned the knife over in his hands. “Cool!”

“Go on to your mother now.”

Pablo turned around and noticed the crowd for the first time. He got a confused look on his face, glanced at Jeb, who nodded, and then ran to his mother, glancing back uncertainly as he did.

Annette folded him in her arms and passed him back to an older black man, who hustled him away. Then her face took on a hard set, and she and the rest strode towards him. Clyde uncoiled a rope.

POSTSCRIPT

Pablo wiped the tears from his eyes and promised himself that he would never, ever
,
eve
r
talk to Mom again. OK, he’d have to ask her permission to have Billy and Carla come over to play, and he guessed he’d have to talk to her if that trader with the honey candy came back to town, but he wouldn’t talk to her anymore except for those times. Not once.

Why did they have to take Jeb away? He was cool. Mom said he was bad, that he was one of those cult people who had attacked the city. Pablo knew that wasn’t true. Jeb wasn’t a bad guy.

Would a bad guy carve him a baseball bat and give him a knife?

Mom said they had kicked him out of the city. What a lie! He knew what Clyde meant when he said “necktie party”. A necktie was the rope they put around your neck when they hang you from a tree.

They killed my friend.

No. He would never talk to Mom again. Not ever.

“You want something to eat?” Jessica asked.

They were sitting in her room at Uncle Marcus and Aunt Rosie’s house. Jessica had been trying to cheer him up. At least they hadn’t killed this friend too.

“No.”

“There are some apples. You like apples.”

“I don’t want any apples, I want Jeb!”

Jessica held his hand. “I’m sorry. They say he was one of them.”

“He wasn’t! He wasn’t a bad guy! He was my friend!”

They sat in silence for a time. Finally Jessica asked. “Would you like to go out and play?”

“No.”

“You want to go to the beach?”

“The beach stinks.”

Jessica leaned close to him and whispered.

“You want to go on an adventure?”

Pablo looked up at her and wiped his nose with the back of his hand. “An adventure?”

Jessica smiled and her eyes were all bright like she was excited about something.

“Yeah, an adventure in the wildlands.”

“I’m not allowed to go into the wildlands.”

Jessica looked at the door she had closed when he had come over and leaned closer to him.

“So what?” she whispered.

Pablo smiled. Yeah, so what? Why couldn’t he do what he wanted?

Jessica’s voice went even softer. “We have to go on an important mission, an adventure, and I need your help.”

Pablo’s eyes went wide.

“A mission? What kind of mission?”

“It’s a secret.”

“Tell me!”

Jessica drew away a little bit.

“I don’t know. . .”

“Is it for your father?”

Jessica frowned. Pablo thought maybe he had said the wrong thing. Would she leave him behind?

“No, it’s not for my father. It’s something I’m doing myself.”

The way she said it he knew he’d better remember it or else.

“What?” he asked.

Jessica glanced at the door again. “Setting something up.”

“Setting what up?”

She leaned closer.

“The biggest. Surprise. Ever.”

“Really?” Awesome!

“I’ll let you in on it, but you have to promise not to tell anyone. Not Uncle Marcus, not Aunt Rosie, not even your mother.”

“I can keep a secret.”

Pablo knew he could keep a secret. This mission sounded cool. He could keep a secret for that.

Besides, he wasn’t talking to Mom anyway. Not ever.

And he sure wouldn’t talk to her about going to the wildlands on a mission.

Don’t miss Book Three in the Toxic World series

WE HAD FLAGS

Coming November 2014!

S
ean McLachlan worked for ten years as an archaeologist in Israel, Cyprus, Bulgaria, and the U.S. before becoming a full-time writer. He is the author of numerous fiction and nonfiction books, listed below. When he’s not writing, he likes to hike, read, travel, and most of all, teach his son about the world. He divides his time between Madrid, Oxford, and Tangier.

To find out more about Sean’s work and travels, visit him at
midlistwriter.blogspot.com
. He also runs a blog dedicated to his Civil War fiction,
civilwarhorror.blogspot.com
. Feel free to friend him on Goodreads at
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/623273.Sean_McLachlan

Radio Hope

In a world shattered by war, pollution and disease. . .

A gunslinging mother longs to
find a safe refuge for her son.

A frustrated revolutionary delivers water to villager
s living on a toxic waste dump.

The assistant mayor of humanity's last city hopes he will never have to take command.

One thing gives them the promise of a better future--Radio Hope, a mysterious station that broadcasts vital information about surviving in a blighted world. But when a mad prophet and his army of fanatics march out of the wildlands on a crusade to purify the land with blood and fire, all three will find their lives intertwining, and changing forever.

Book One of the Toxic World post-apocalyptic series. Available in print and electronic editions!

The Scavenger

In a world shattered by war, pollution, and disease, a lone scavenger discovers a priceless relic from the Old Times.

The problem is, it’
s stuck in the middle of the worst wasteland he knows--a contaminated city inhabited by insane chem addicts and vengeful villagers. Only his wits, his gun, and an unlikely ally can get him out alive.

Set in the Toxic World series introduced in the novel
Radio Hope
, this 10,000-word story explores more of the dangers and personalities that make up a post-apocalyptic world that's all too possible.

Available in electronic edition!

A Fine Likeness

A Confederate guerrilla and a Union captain discover there's something more dangerous
in the woods than each other.

Jimmy Rawlins is a teenaged bushwhacker who leads his friends on ambushes of Union patrols. They join infamous guerrilla leader Bloody Bill Anderson on a raid through Missouri, but Jimmy questions his commitment to the Cause when he discovers this madman plans to sacrifice a Union prisoner in a hellish ritual
to raise the Confederate dead.

Richard Addison is an aging captain of a lackluster Union militia. Depressed over his son's death in battle, a glimpse of Jimmy changes his life. Jimmy and his son look so much alike that Addison becomes obsessed with saving him from Bloody Bill. Captain Addison must wreck his reputation to win this war within a war, while Jimmy must decide whether to betray the Confederacy to stop the evil ari
sing in the woods of Missouri.

Available in print and electronic editions!

The Night the Nazis Came to Dinner and other Dark Tales

A spectral dinner
party goes horribly wrong. . .

An immortal warrior hopes a fina
l battle will set him free. . .

A big-game hunter preys on endangered species to su
pply an illicit restaurant. . .

A new technology soothes First World
guilt. . .

Here are four dark tales that straddle the boundary between reality and speculation. You better hope they don’t come true.

Available in electronic edition!

The Quintessence of Absence

Can a drug-addicted sorcerer sober up long enough to save a kidnapped girl and his own Duchy?

In an alternate 18th century Germany where magic is real and paganism never died, Lothar is in the bonds of nepenthe, a powerful drug that gives him ecstatic visions. It has also taken his job, his friends, and his self-respect. Now his old employer has rehired Lothar to find the man's daughter, who is in the grip of
her own addiction to nepenthe.

As Lothar digs deeper into the girl's disappearance, he uncovers a plot that threatens the entire Duchy of Anhalt, and finds the only way to stop it is to face his own weakness.

Available in electronic edition!

Wild West History

Tombstone—Wyatt Earp, the O.K. Corral, and the Vendetta Rid
e
(Osprey Publishing: 2013)

The Last Ride of the James-Younger Gan
g
(Osprey Publishing: 2012)

Civil War History

Ride Around Missouri: Shelby’s Great Raid 1863
(Osprey Publishing: 2011)

American Civil War Guerrilla Tactics
(Osprey Publishing: 2009)

Missouri History

Outlaw Tales of Missouri
(Globe Pequot Press: 2009)

Missouri: An Illustrated History
(Hippocrene Books: 2008)

It Happened in Missouri
(Globe Pequot Press: 2007)

Medieval History

Medieval Handgonnes: The First Black Powder Infantry Weapons
(Osprey: 2010)

Byzantium: An Illustrated History
(Hippocrene Books: 2004)

African History

Armies of the Adowa Campaign 1896: the Italian Disaster in Ethiopia
(Osprey: 2011)